We begin the first discourse of the sefer Zera Shimshon on Megillat Esther. The Gemara at the beginning of Masechet Megillah states: Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak opened his exposition of this narrative from here - "Had Hashem not been with us when man rose up against us" (Tehillim 124:2), a man and not a king. That is to say, we thank the Holy One, Blessed is He, that only an ordinary man rose against us, and not a king.
Immediately, a difficulty arises: What novelty did he teach us with this exposition? On the contrary, it seems to invite a question. If indeed no more than an ordinary man rose against us, and not a king, then the miracle of salvation was not so immense, and it would hardly seem fitting to declare over it, "Had Hashem not been with us." Confronting an ordinary person is far easier, and defense against him is far simpler. If so, what is the special thanksgiving here?
Some explain that the decree of annihilation issued from Haman, who was a commoner and not a king, and there would have been a far greater humiliation had the decree come from the mouth of a king. The thanksgiving is that the decree originated from an ordinary person and not a king, which would have constituted a far greater disgrace.
In the sefer Rosh Yosef, the famous explanation is given: Had it been a king, after all, "the heart of kings and ministers is in the hand of Hashem," and the Holy One, Blessed is He, would not have placed in his heart the thought to destroy us. But Haman was not even a minister, and therefore he possessed complete free will, enabling him to decree destruction upon us, leaving us seemingly with no way to contend against him. This is the kindness: even though a mere man rose against us, who was not subject to the divine constraint of "the heart of kings and ministers is in the hand of Hashem," nevertheless the Holy One, Blessed is He, delivered us from his hand.
The holy Ohr HaChaim explains similarly: When the Holy One, Blessed is He, sees that a person rises up to distress Israel, He elevates him to become a ruler. Seemingly, is this a reward? On the contrary - the moment he becomes a ruler, "the heart of kings and ministers is in the hand of Hashem" applies to him, and then "the dog's chain is in the master's hand," in the words of the Ohr HaChaim. Here, however, the chain was loose, for Haman was a commoner and not a king.
Another commentator explains that "man" refers to Achashverosh himself. And if you ask, is it not written, "This is Achashverosh who reigned from Hodu to Cush"? True, but who was Achashverosh originally? Vashti identified him as her father's stable boy. For this reason, we see how he conducted himself like a commoner: flying into a rage, executing Vashti, and conferring the crown upon Esther. All of this stemmed from the fact that he was not truly royal, but a servant who rose to rule after slaying her father. This is the meaning of "when a commoner rose against us, and not a king" - for had he been of royal lineage, Vashti would never have sent him that scathing remark, she would have continued to reign, Esther would never have ascended to the throne, and the entire miracle of salvation would not have unfolded as it did.
And in Derashot Chatam Sofer, he explains: A king does not execute his own decrees directly. He issues a command to his ministers, from whom it is passed to the judges, and from them to the officers; along this drawn-out path, the fury cools, and sometimes it is even possible to escape his grasp. But when the one decreeing is an ordinary person, he carries out everything himself and waits for no one - he draws and shoots. The decree is far harsher. Therefore, salvation from the hand of an ordinary man is greater than salvation from the hand of a king.
These are other explanations, but let us examine what the author of the Zera Shimshon explains. When the Gemara says, "He opened his exposition from here," it means that this verse serves as the gateway to the entire matter, the core foundation of the subject. Such was the Sages' practice - when they came to expound upon Megillat Eichah or Megillat Esther, they would open with a verse that encapsulates the root of the narrative. Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak introduced Megillat Esther with this verse because, through the miracle of Purim, it was made clearly known to us that the Holy One, Blessed is He, prepares the remedy before the affliction.
As our Sages of blessed memory stated: Were it not for the first letters, not a remnant or survivor would have remained of the enemies of Israel [a euphemism for Israel itself]. For had it not been so, the gentiles would have rushed to kill us immediately upon receiving the second letters. And what were these first letters?
וַיִּשְׁלַח סְפָרִים אֶל־כָּל־מְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל־מְדִינָה וּמְדִינָה כִּכְתָבָהּ וְאֶל־עַם וָעָם כִּלְשׁוֹנוֹ לִהְיוֹת כָּל־אִישׁ שֹׂרֵר בְּבֵיתוֹ וּמְדַבֵּר כִּלְשׁוֹן עַמּוֹ׃ (אסתר א, כב) - "And he sent dispatches to all the king's provinces, to every province according to its script, and to every people according to its language, that every man should rule in his own house and speak according to the language of his people." (Esther 1:22)
Did anyone truly need an order from Ahasuerus for every man to rule in his house? The Gemara says that even the lowliest person is king in his own home - at least that was how it used to be. Did the king not know this? From this decree, the nations concluded that this king was unstable and not fully in his right mind. Therefore, when the second letters arrived - the letters of annihilation - they were in no rush to carry them out, having already decided that the king was not sound of mind. Thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, prepared the cure before the blow: had it not been for those first letters, they would have carried out the slaughter against us immediately and would not have waited for the appointed day on the thirteenth of Adar.
In all other miracles, and even in the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt, this principle was not clearly known. If one might suggest that we already saw this principle in Egypt - based on the words of the Rama mi-Fano in Asarah Ma'amarot (Ma'amar Em Kol Chai), that the Holy One, blessed be He, arranged for the brothers to rule over Yosef first and only then for him to rule in Egypt, for otherwise Israel would have had no way to emerge from the impurity of Egypt - surely this appears to be preparing the cure before the blow.
To explain this: before Yosef went down to Egypt, his brothers first ruled over him; he was their slave and they sold him. Since he was their slave and was sold by them, the halachic status of redemption applied - the right to redeem a slave from the hands of the nations, as they were his original masters. Had he been captured from the start by the Midianites and Egyptians without first being under his brothers' authority, the law of redemption would not have applied. Because that mastery was ours, when Yosef acquired Egypt, everything was acquired for us. This would seem to be preparing the cure before the blow.
However, it is difficult to deduce this principle from there, since there are those who hold the opposite - that the entire reason for the Egyptian exile was the sin of the sale of Yosef. In other words, the sale was not a merit through which we escaped the impurity of Egypt, but the very act that plunged us into it.
And if one points to what the Holy One, blessed be He, promised Avraham, "and afterward they shall go out with great wealth" - this too cannot be called preparing the cure before the blow. For as the proverb says to the hornet: neither your sting nor your honey. Preparing the cure before the blow means that the reality of the cure precedes the blow itself. For example, if a person is sent to prison, and Heaven had already decreed two years earlier that a coup would occur, so that the moment he enters he is freed - that is preparing the cure before the blow, and it is wondrous. But saying, "Sit in prison, and after all those years you will receive a reward," is not a cure that preceded the blow, but merely a promise after the blow. To that, a person says: do not make me promises, and do not put me in prison. Thus, here too we do not find the cure preceding the blow.
Rather, it was certainly on Purim alone that the kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, in preparing the cure before the blow for us, became known to the entire world.
Here we find the explanation of the Kli Yakar at the end of the Book of Samuel. Know that wherever you see the Kli Yakar cited on the Prophets, it does not refer to the Kli Yakar on the Torah by Rabbi Ephraim of Luntchitz, but rather to Rabbi Shmuel Laniado, one of the prominent Sages of the East, who authored the Kli Yakar on the Prophets.
The Kli Yakar writes on the verse, "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, for me": for salvation from every trouble belongs to the Lord by preparing the cure before the blow, saving man from all sin and guilt, which are terrible afflictions for the spiritual soul. This is the meaning of "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer" - not from someone else, but "for me," meaning, He delivers me from my very self, so that the malice of my heart does not do to my soul what no enemy could ever do.
Consider what a magnificent explanation this is. On the surface, the word "for me" (li) seems superfluous: the Lord is my rock, the Lord is my fortress, the Lord is my deliverer - so why add "for me"? But what causes a person the greatest troubles? His own sins. It follows that a person's greatest adversary is himself. If you had no sins, no one could harm you or do you any damage whatsoever. Everything that harms us stems from the troubles we bring upon ourselves: "The foolishness of man perverts his way, and his heart frets against the Lord" (Proverbs 19:3) - we pervert our own path through our sins, and then grow angry at the Lord for what He brought upon us, when in truth we brought it upon ourselves.
It turns out, then, that we need protection first and foremost from ourselves: that we do not ruin things for ourselves, that we do not sin, and thereby be saved from all trouble. An enemy cannot harm us, for when Israel performs the will of the Omnipresent, no enemy can rule over them. That which harms us most is our own deeds.
Along similar lines, the author of the Akeidat Yitzchak (the Ba'al HaAkeidah) explained: "When man rose up against us" - this refers to the rising up of the force within us, by virtue of our being human. For when the hidden inclination inherent in being human rose up against us, the Holy One, blessed be He, came to our aid and delivered us from its hand.
And these words are wondrous. Man (adam) is formed from adamah (earth) - dust from the earth, and the name also alludes to dam (blood), which hints at worldly desires - while on the other hand, he possesses a spiritual soul. And this is the struggle: a constant grappling between soul and body, where the body pulls toward physical desires and the soul pulls toward spirituality. Sometimes it happens that "man rose up against us" - that what rises up and overpowers us is the earth, the blood, the coarse physical force within us, our inner desires. Regarding this, the verse states that the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us: He helps us so that the evil inclination does not rise up against us and that desires do not rule over us.
And this itself is the reason for our deliverance, why the enemies who rose against us did not swallow us up. This is why the verse opens in the singular - "When man rose up against us" - and concludes in the plural - "They would have swallowed us alive." That is to say: precisely because we were not handed over to our evil inclination and overcame it, the enemies could not overcome us either. For enemies can harm us only when we are handed over to our lusts and do what is evil in the eyes of Hashem - and then an enemy comes upon them, and afterward they repent and the land rests for forty years. Everything begins with our sins. Had the Holy One, blessed be He, not assisted us in contending with the "man" within us, the yetzer hara - they would have swallowed us alive; our enemies would have devoured us alive.
It is well known that the Jewish people of that generation became liable to destruction because they bowed to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. However, since they did so only outwardly (lifanim), out of fear of Nebuchadnezzar's punishment, the Holy One, blessed be He, likewise dealt with them only outwardly. Had they bowed to the statue in their hearts as well, there would have been no standing or recovery for them, Heaven forbid.
Nebuchadnezzar, as we learned in Sefer Daniel, erected an image in the plain of Dura following the dream he had seen. He saw that there would be successive empires and that he was the "head of gold," so he sought to ensure that his kingdom would endure forever, erecting a statue made entirely of gold. He commanded that at a single moment, upon hearing the sound of the musical instruments, everyone must bow to it - as if through this act his kingdom would be guaranteed forever. Such was his mindset, and there is no need to delve into the minds of tyrants. At any rate, that entire generation bowed to the statue, except for Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, who refused and were cast into the fiery furnace. And for this, the people became liable to destruction.
Yet they did this only lifanim - merely outwardly, out of fear of execution - and did not truly intend to worship an idol. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, also did not decree upon them a decree of actual annihilation, but only an outward one, in order to bring them to reverence and repentance. However, had they bowed in their hearts as well, had they worshipped the idol for its own sake, they would have had no revival, Heaven forbid.
Furthermore, our Sages, of blessed memory, said: One sin drags another in its wake. When a person begins with a minor transgression, the yetzer hara drags him toward a severe sin, and this is its constant way - at first it is a "wayfarer," then a "guest," and ultimately "the master of the house." The evil inclination does not lead a person directly to idolatry, but rather gradually, slice by slice, a little more each time, until it brings him to the pit of destruction. And so we find in the parable of the poor man's ewe lamb that Natan the Prophet told David: at first it is called a "wayfarer," then a "guest," and finally it has become "the master of the house."
Now, since Israel had already begun to sin in actual deed, it was a great miracle that the force within them - by virtue of their being human, namely the yetzer hara - did not pull them along to bow in their hearts as well. For according to nature and the way of the world, that is what should have happened, since one sin drags another. Rather, the reason the evil inclination did not drag them further was surely because Hashem was on our side, assisting us, and for this reason we merited redemption.
And we all know: when a person commits a sin, at first he does not do it whole-heartedly, but after once, twice, and three times, it is already done whole-heartedly. At first it is a sin; then it becomes "neither a sin nor a mitzvah"; then it becomes "for the scrupulous and punctilious"; and finally it becomes an absolute mitzvah from the Torah, and anyone who fails to do so will even be punished! The decline is always gradual, and one who has embarked upon it does not stop. So it is in matters of transgression: in the beginning a person says, "The yetzer hara overcame me," but by the second and third stage he already invents an ideology that this is how things ought to be - "It is a mitzvah to steal, an obligation to steal," and whoever has the opportunity to steal and does not take it is considered as if he is destroying his own property with his own hands and will be held accountable for it. In the beginning he felt uncomfortable, looked around, and offered excuses, but today he no longer needs explanations - as far as he is concerned, this is the right path.
It turns out that the very act of bowing down to the idol "for outward show" created a very grave concern that they would continue further and that it would penetrate inward as well, for such is the way of the yetzer hara. Therefore, this is the great miracle: that the Holy One, blessed be He, helped us not to be dragged along after the beginning of the sin. For had we been dragged along, we would have reached a state where sins are committed whole-heartedly, and then we would not have been worthy of redemption - we would not have been worthy of Hashem saving us from Haman.
And for this reason Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak began his exposition of this Megillah with this verse - that the Holy One, blessed be He, preceded with a cure to save us from the yetzer hara. The petichta teaches the entire essence of the narrative: that the Holy One, blessed be He, provides the cure before the affliction, something that was not made clearly known from other places, neither from the selling of Yosef nor from the Exodus from Egypt. And what is that preceding cure? "When man rose up against us" - that the Holy One, blessed be He, helps us confront the man within us, the corporeal part within us, "in that which he is a man." For had Hashem not prevented us from deteriorating into sin, we would have declined to a state where we had no protection whatsoever from our enemies, and we would have had no protection from Haman and Achashverosh.
And this also explains the difficulty with which we opened. "A man, and not a king" - if the yetzer hara had overcome us, it could have harmed our souls far more than the king himself ever could. What we bring upon ourselves through our sins harms us more than anything enemies can inflict, for through it we harm ourselves in the most severe manner.
And since we were not worthy of a miracle on account of the sin of bowing down, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the affliction upon us so that the cure might follow - the healing of the soul and the healing of the body. That is to say: since we brought this upon ourselves by bowing to the idol, even though it was only for outward show, nevertheless a sin was committed here, Hashem brought the affliction so that from it the cure would emerge.
And this is just as the Maharsha wrote in Chiddushei Agadot on the verse "For He does not afflict from His heart, nor grieve the children of men," regarding that very statement that the Holy One, blessed be He, also dealt with them only for outward show. The Maharsha writes: this means that they did so only out of fear of execution, as explained in the Book of Daniel, and did not do so in their hearts to worship idols - they had no intention to worship Nebuchadnezzar's idol. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, also dealt with them only for outward show, to instill fear in them that they were deserving of destruction, that is, to terrify them that annihilation was looming, so that they would become anxious and repent as a result.
And this is the meaning of "For He does not afflict from His heart" - if a person commits a sin without heart, "nor grieve the children of men" - the Holy One, blessed be He, brings grief upon him so that he will repent and be saved from the trouble. The grief itself is the vessel through which the calamity is averted. And this is the twofold cure: the healing of the body - the physical rescue from extermination, and the healing of the soul - that they repented. And through that repentance, they subsequently became worthy of salvation. And the words of a wise man's mouth find favor.